Fly Blog

Well apart from the complete fuckup in not making it over to Italy for the weekend, it’s been a good week. I have a new fence, steps and alarm system installed. This week while the Drava is dirty we’ll be extending my roof slightly for a covered outdoor eating area. on Friday, Peter and I fished the Drava. Peter caught a nice Asp on dusk, I missed one!

Here on the Ribnik and there on the Drava…

Wood chopping and fishing a very low Drava, making the most out of very short daylight hours! Christ it will soon be the shortest day and Christmas – what happened to the summer? Hard to believe that it hasn’t snowed yet, I’m sure it would have done so had there been any moisture around. So I’m living on borrowed time, chopping as much wood as I can for the winter and (hopefully) next summer as well!

I made the decision, this year, to not live under bridges on a diet of raw apples and roadside blackberries, but instead to have a couple of months of hard work, designing tackle, so that I can get rich quick and return to sunnier climes a prince, or duke or a king maybe. In the meantime I’ve finally finished Latohegy, all apart from the water heating system which involves soldering copper, a task which is, of course, completely impossible. When I say “finished” I am referring only to the inside, and to the inside of the cabin at that. I’m not referring to the cellar, the outside bath, the pizza oven and seating area, the outdoor flytying room, the ten miles of fence, the vineyards, the three lakes (one of which is for casting, the other two containing large black bass), the mermaid statue water fountains, the house I’m actually going to live in or any of the other things that will prevent me fishing or fucking 24hrs/day.

But even so, it’s comes as both relief and surprise to have finished something that I started, and since I can’t recall ever being in this position before, I went fishing…

Today’s shots from the riverside…

Today’s afternoon float yeilded four Asp, including a nice one for Peter. Floating this river is great fun and we’re starting to think that Asp may not be as imaginary as they once were… (phew)

Well so much for the Drava being clear. It was clear, but that was yesterday. Today it’s muddy brown… WTF? Fortunately however I wasn’t there at 4am because I was waiting for Clark’s page to arrive from NZ – thanks Clark! And I can tell you something, I don’t know where it was raining – because it sure as well wasn’t raining here – but somewhere in either Croatia or Italy they got drenched.

Interestingly, there was a bit of a backwater that was clear. There wasn’t much I could do about it – because I couldn’t get to it, but there must be a way, even it means just floating across on a rubber duck. And in that clear backwater, not only where there some fish rising (!), and some others being eaten, but I saw an enormous fish swimming along. I don’t know how enormous, but I’ll say thirty pounds (it could be more – it could have been fifty, basically I have no fucking idea, but it looked big from 50 yards) and I can’t tell you what it was either, but I think it was a catfish. But it could have been a Mugwai… could it be, that the Mugwai lives here? Here in Hungary? Yes, I think maybe it does. And it lives 300m from Latohead.

I don’t know how long the Drava will take to clear, I suspect not very long, but that could be complete bollocks, or just wishful thinking on my part, or both.

I’ll be in Spain the following weekend for a Stillwater course: advanced stillwater flycasting techniques, technical fishing methods AND flytying. That’s what I like about Spain; Carlos always thinks up something new to do – and mostly it’s never been done before.

I hope this is not going to turn into one of those “Don’t fish in Hungary blogs”…

Yeah I know. But what with the EFTTEX here in Budapest and the recent cart upgrades in Flytackle Europe there hasn’t been much exciting to write about apart from the Sexyloops FP. That said our cabin is now in Hungary, waiting to be delivered to Latohegy. We’ll be building the base (hopefully) within the next week or so AND building the cabin and then I’ll truly be living on the water again – thankfully. Busy as hell at the moment, what with that, Sexyloops, Flytackle Europe, Ironman training and of course: the Drava is clear.

So that’s all gone to hell now, hasn’t it?

I got there pretty late this morning, with Peter, probably about 9.30, expecting it to be high and discoloured. And although it is quite high, and a little discoloured, it is very fishable indeed. We were way too late in the day to do any good – it’s like 30 degrees here in daytime Hungary, if you know what I’m saying – but I did move a fish from under the banks. I suspect it was an Asp but I didn’t get a good enough look – it could have been a decent chub – be that as it may, it’s all about to happen – and if there’s fish under the banks it’s going to be interesting.

Tomorrow morning 4am: I’ll be there.

PS Lots of grasshoppers around. Very bright green. I feel a flytying session coming on..

What with Cherry giving birth to Rambo the Jacuzzi and us releasing the Flycasting Definitions I haven’t had a great deal of time to cast a line in the last two days. I managed to get to Latohead this afternoon for a grass-killing session and a machete track-making trip down to the river. The river is high and still dirty. Bollocks. Still summer is great at the moment, 31 degrees today, although 14 degrees by the end of the week?? WTF is that all about?

Tomorrow back to the early starts now the dogs are taking care of themselves. Mosquitoes can be pretty bad down there but tomorrow I won’t be wearing shorts. Apparently my sister wants to marry a Congolese born-again Christian called Dieu Merci. It’s all happening.

Down at the Drava with my Machete

So just back from Black Bass fishing. Black Bass have been in Hungary since 1895 (I think – I found this fact using a quick search). I haven’t caught any from the main Drava river itself, but there are connected lakes and backwaters which host bass, and one of these is Peter’s lake. We were on the water at 4.30am this morning FFS, which meant I got up at 4am. I love mornings; they’re my favourite time of the day.

First black bass took a white rabbit, the second took a damsel nymph. I missed one other. So that’s just great. Up at 4am for two fish. And they’re not exactly monsters. Tomorrow however I think life could get interesting, because I’ve found another backwater which could be fantastic. It’s long, probably a good thousand metres, I’ve seen bass, I’ve heard stories of pike and big asp and I’m off to buy a kayak, because flyfishing in the jungle doesn’t look like much fun here.

Most people wouldn’t be able to do this fishing because they wouldn’t be able to cope with the early starts.